Notice the cuts immediately before and after the cops said that? It’s likely taken out of context, and I imagine they were kind of mocking him when they said that.
I was put in jail overnight following a traffic stop where I did exactly the same thing as this young man. The officer never told me why I was being arrested, but the booking sheet said, “obstruction”. The charges were later dropped and the officer got a reprimand, but none of this takes my fingerprints out of their system nor erases the memories of hearing other prisoners beaten into submission in the holding area.
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Which makes me think: do you not have the right to ask for some ID from the officer?
Are they so important as to abrogate your of your civil rights?
From what I recall, patrolling officers catch far more drunk drivers than checkpoints do. So who is being protected?
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Based on the reported arrests made, citations issues, tickets given, and drunk drivers caught - yes this was an unjust ‘precaution’. The actions of the police made it crystal clear that this was a fishing expedition and a DUI checkpoint in name only.
The highest courts have repeatedly ruled that this type of checkpoint is illegal. The police are charged with enforcing the law and here they broke the law. They knew they were breaking the law.
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Actually, it’s more like seeing someone drop their groceries all over the sidewalk, then having several heavily armed police officers demand that you stop and help pick up those groceries or face arrest.
Because humans are totally known for their ability to have their power pried from their warm, living hands?
Not recommending anything drastic, but these people will cease being authoritarians sometime after retirement, maybe.
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We have those in Manhattan. I leave the station and enter by another door or walk down to the next stop.
I see myself as the passenger.
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kenny kenny kenny,
After all, he got a benefit from the search: it exonerated him.
Here in America we are exonerated until proven dishonorable. You know that.
But who exonerates the exonerat-men?
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Guy was being a douche, and so were the cops.
Wish i got paid to be a douche.
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It could well be, but I think on some level they were cognizant of the over reach.
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He should be grateful!
difference is, the guy is allowed to be a douche. that’s not illegal.
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You’re suggesting that he should be guilty until proven innocent, and that it should be his personal responsibility to prove himself innocent?
In the US, using “sir” is a sign of respect rather than “I recognize that you are better than I”.
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Weird. That says to me we should actually assert our rights to make sure we’re not living in a genuine dictatorship, not waive our right at the slightest pretext as you suggest in your first sentence.
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On the one hand, fuck tha police for overstepping their bounds. On the other hand, how many episodes of Cops do you have to watch to know that disagreeing with them is likely to end badly?
I’m trying to think this out in terms of game theory, trying to be neutral-ish. Your best “moves” to get justice without getting murdered* is to submit to their bullshit, jump through hoops, and hope that after they let you go, you can report them for shenanigans. But they never get more than a slap on the wrist**.
And I was thinking about the likelihood of the reactionary commenters here, and my own reactionary tendency with the above crack about watching Cops. Let’s go full Godwin. If we had a video camera that could peer back through time at a confrontation between an SS officer and an average German citizen at a checkpoint, the neutral game theory for playing the innocent citizen would be the same. Answer their questions in the way most likely to get you set free, submit to their demands, and hope that they’ll let you go.
I’m not trying to say all cops = Nazis. I’m saying think about what you have to do in order to survive a confrontation with people who have a license to use force and kill. I’m not trying to excuse them either. I’m pointing out that when they act like a police state and when we know we can’t get justice later, this is what they look like.
*… Okay, never mind the “neutral-ish.”
** e.g. Sarah Abdurrahman’s experience at the Canadian border. http://www.onthemedia.org/story/my-detainment-story-or-how-i-learned-stop-feeling-safe-my-own-country-and-hate-border-patrol/
Dude, do you ever talk about anything else?
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My rights ARE the law.
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